The ‘Knockout game’ is the tip of the iceberg

On Saturday, Rev. Al Sharpton said what the mainstream media has so far been very hesitant to report about the “Knockout game.”

He acknowledged the game’s racial element.

As I reported at the Examiner, during his weekly National Action Network meeting in Harlem, Sharpton said in part,

“This kind of behavior is deplorable and must be condemned by all of us. We would not be silent if it was the other way around. We cannot be silent or in any way reluctant to confront it when it is coming from our own community.”

The potentially deadly knockout game has finally received media coverage this week, despite the fact that alternative media, Liberty Unyielding’s own Colin Flaherty in particular, has been reporting on the sick trend for at least two years.

His book, “White Girl Bleed a Lot,” is “The only book to document the recent epidemic of black mob violence: Hundreds of examples in more than 100 cities. All since 2010.”

“Dominic was riding over to a friend’s house to show him his new lacrosse stick. Two black youths, or possibly even young adults, jumped out from behind a tree, knocked my 12-year-old son off his bike, grabbed his lacrosse stick and hit him in the face with it. Before he could get to his feet, the blow to his face made him fall back down, and blood profusely flowed. The two blacks then laughed as my son lay on the ground bleeding.”

In 2011, Lydia Warren of the Daily Mail wrote a story called, “Knockout King: The sickening ‘game’ claiming lives across the country as youths beat up the vulnerable ‘for attention.'” She writes,

“Reports from across the country – including Massachusetts, New Jersey and Chicago – have identified victims as immigrants, elderly and often alone.”

Warren details the tragic demise of retired teacher Hoang Nguyen, 72, “who had moved from Vietnam to St. Louis, Missouri to be closer to his daughter.”

He was returning to his apartment with his wife after a daytime trip to the grocery store when they were approached by a group in an alley. Stepping in front of his wife, Hoang was savagely beaten by the youths and died from his injuries.

“Matthew Quain still struggles to piece together what happened after a trip to the grocery store nearly turned deadly. He remembers a group of loitering young people, a dimly lit street – then nothing. The next thing he knew he was waking up with blood pouring out of his head.”

In 2011, all signs of an epidemic were there:

“Scattered reports of the game have come from around the country including Massachusetts, Arizona, New Jersey and Chicago. In St. Louis, the game has become almost contagious, with tragic consequences.”

But academics scoffed in 2011 at the suggestion that the knockout game was a “trend.” The Riverfront Times reported,

Mike Males, a research fellow at the nonprofit Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice and who runs the website YouthFacts.org, says the media have made habit of cherry-picking isolated instances of “knockout games” in order to gin up sensational stories that demonize youth. “This knockout-game legend is a fake trend,” Males contends.

“Fake trend.” A phrase reminiscent of “phony scandal.” What an injustice to the victims.

The mainstream media still hasn’t gotten around to identifying the race of the perpetrators, or the victims. And they say the game is “new.”

The teens randomly target a stranger to “knock out” with one punch for entertainment. Although the “game” varies, oftentimes the victim is not robbed. The assault is often filmed and posted online.

One particularly frightening aspect of this so-called game is that the victims can be women, children or the elderly, representing a larger problem in society: a shocking lack of empathy among some of our nation’s black youth.

One of the victims of the Lower Merion Township attacks was an 83-year-old man, mowing his lawn when he was unsuspectingly struck and knocked to the ground. His injuries are described as serious. The second victim was 63-year-old man out walking his dog. Police have arrested two suspects, Samuel Hayles and Markus January.

Additionally, SEPTA spokesman Andrew Bush said,

“We had two incidents — the first was on the Market Frankford train on Oct. 26 at the Margaret/Orthodox station. A man was slapped on the head by juveniles and on the surveillance camera you can see another juvenile who appears to be recording the incident. The second incident happened on Nov. 15 at the Erie station on the Broad Street Subway. There’s a woman walking and a young male came up behind her and tried to strike her…”

Speaking of SEPTA, the local NBC affiliate reported Friday in an article called

“SEPTA: Knockout Game Not an Issue for Riders,” that

“Two videos of Knockout Game-like attacks occurring in SEPTA subway stations were recently released by SEPTA police, but are the incidents actually linked to the trend?”

Seriously? Am I missing something?

SEPTA spokesman Jerri Williams said,

“We really don’t know if we have a problem. We only have this one video and we don’t know what the guy was trying to do. Was it a knockout game or was he trying to get her phone and just didn’t follow through? We don’t know.”

Yeah. Jerri, let me help. YES, you have a problem.

The local NBC affiliate in San Diego reported that “Victoria Hyatt says her husband was attacked in such a way by a stranger in downtown San Diego on Tuesday.”

“As her husband waited to cross the intersection at 2nd Avenue and Ash Street, Hyatt says a man walked up beside her husband and then, out of nowhere, punched her husband in the face. She said, “And as soon as he hit him as hard as he could, he just kept walking.”

He was lucky.

In Chicago,

“a 62-year-old grandfather was actually killed from injuries sustained in an attack linked to the dangerous game.”

In Brooklyn, a variant of the game referred to by some as “Knock Out the Jew” has gained favor in the predominantly black, minority Orthodox Jewish Crown Heights community. There,

“Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said last week that Orthodox Jews in Crown Heights were the victims of eight episodes of mob violence and vandalism.”

As Dave Urbanski of the Blaze reported Saturday, clinical psychiatrist Jeff Gardere offered his observation on the typical perpetrator of the game,

“These are young people who have dead-end lives, who have no real goals, who have no educational objectives.”

Those indicators may be common threads. But there is clearly more to it.

“blamed the media and parents for what he called extreme aggression by America’s youth. Negative attention, he said, is often rewarded. ‘That’s America. America loves violence and so do our kids,’ Williams said. ‘We market violence to our children and we wonder why they’re violent. It’s because we are.'”

What do we expect when the mainstream media celebrates the degradation of the family and actively markets a gangsta culture to black youth? (And seriously, isn’t that ‘trend’ getting old and silly?)

Now that Americans are aware of the “game,” thanks to the reluctant mainstream media (who again, continues to leave out the racial aspect), the question begs to be asked:

Were there other incidents of the “knockout game” that were not categorized correctly?

The answer: Of course there were.

For example, in 2008, Sean Conroy, a Starbucks manager, was attacked by a mob of teens in a subway concourse at 13th and Market Streets, Philadelphia. Conroy tragically died, the media outlets said, from an asthma attack during the assault.

He was 36, and engaged to be married to “the love of his life.” He was a gentle soul, an artistic type who had recently moved back to the area from California. He had amazing parents who loved him dearly.

He was an only child.

The local ABC affiliate reported that five teens were charged. The heartbreaking story told the tale of teens who did not seem to suffer from remorse for their actions.

“The Conroys said they had been willing to forgive the boys who killed their only son, even hoping they could avoid jail time. But, when they saw the teens laughing their way through the trial, laughing and joking with their girlfriends, they had a change of heart.”

Buried in the report,

“The teens were on the subway platform when someone challenged another group member to hit someone, and Conroy was punched from behind, authorities said.”

And another elephant in the room: There have been many instances of violence perpetrated by groups of teens that do not involve the “knockout” game, but do involve “random” victims.

For example, in Hoboken last week, Jerry DeMarco of the Cliffview Pilot reported,

“Six juveniles who went on a wilding rampage in Hoboken this afternoon — throwing bottles at cars and assaulting a disabled man and a female postal carrier…”

In New York City last week, two students from Great Britain were attacked by a group of teens inside a New York City train station, as reported at the Star Tribune.

In Elmwood, New York, James Gifford, 70, was leaving 7/11 after purchasing “a soda, some doughnuts, a newspaper and a can of soup.” Sean Kirst of Syracuse.com reported,

“…he was confronted by “five or six men” in their 20s, according to police Sgt. Thomas Connellan. Two of them began striking and kicking Gifford. The beating continued after he fell to the ground.”

Poor Mr. Gifford died of his injuries. It is painful to look at his picture. One cannot fathom what his family is experiencing.

Kirst also wrote in Syracuse.com of Michael Daniels, 51, who also died at the hands of black teens outside of a grocery store in May. The teens were 13 and 15 years old. He was a human being. He was loved.

Lawrence E. “Shine” Thornton, 87, a well-loved WWII veteran “known in the Delta region for his award-winning Maria’s Famous Hot Tamales,” as reported at the Daily Mail, was attacked and killed by four teens.

Divyendu Sinha, 49, died three days after he was beaten by a group of teens on an Old Bridge Street in 2010. He was walking with his family. Sue Epstein of NJ.com wrote that the teens

“attacked the man unprovoked and later sent text messages to each other celebrating the assault.”

The common threads are that the perpetrators are always groups of black teens, or young adults. Their targets are not black, and they are chosen randomly. Yet, you never heard of them. Or their victims.

“Nobody is saying that all black Americans engage in this horrific behavior, and it is insulting that the mainstream media has such a small opinion of the general population that they feel compelled to suppress information that an informed populace needs in order to address legitimate problems.”

Renee Nal is a co-founder of TavernKeepers.com, a news and political commentary site founded by former Glenn Beck interns. She is also the National Conservative Examiner. Renee is an associate producer for Trevor Loudon's political documentary, 'The Enemies Within.'